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How to activate, deactivate, and moderate live chat from the web studio

This article discusses how to activate, deactivate, and moderate live chat from the web-based production studio for live events. 

The live chat feature on your event page or site allows viewers to interact and discuss your virtual event. You can moderate these interactions by deleting comments or blocking users. Chat moderation is only accessible through a desktop browser and is not supported on the mobile app.

In this article:

About chat for live events 

During your event, the browser will display only the 100 most recent messages to you and your viewers to prevent playback buffering and system slowdown.

Chat is active for your event as soon as you activate it. Viewers can start chatting, even if you haven’t gone live yet. The chat will remain active until you finish your stream (unless you deactivate it prior).

Viewers can share the following: 

  • Emojis and messages are limited to 240 characters in length.
  • Links pasted in chat will appear as clickable hyperlinks.
  • Chat participants can delete their messages (but not those of others).

​​While one event can accommodate an unlimited number of viewers, chat, polls, and Q&A are limited to 80,000 participants. If the number of participants reaches 80,000, new viewers will be unable to access these features. However, existing participants will retain their access.

Activating and Deactivating chat

Audience chat is off by default. However, you can turn chat capabilities on or off through the web studio. 

To turn chat for live events on and off: 

  1. Select the chat button from the web studio interface at the top right of the screen. 
  2. Select the overflow menu (⋮) at the top-right of the chat module.
  3. Select the toggle next to Audience chat to turn the chat feature on or off.
    Chat overflow menu with the options: 'Audience chat', 'Download', and 'Engagement tools'. There is a toggle next to 'Audience Chat'.

After it's activated, your chat will be available on the Vimeo event page, and the engagement tools will be embedded. 

Moderating chat

During your event, you can delete individual comments or ban a user entirely via the Chat tab, the web-based production tool, or your stream’s Vimeo public page. 

To delete a comment or block a user: 

  1. From the chat window in the web studio, hover your cursor over their message.
  2. You can delete a comment by selecting the trash can icon. However, you cannot recover a deleted comment. 
  3. Select the block icon, which is shaped like a circle with a line through it, to block a user. Select it again to unblock the user.
    A hovered-over comment with a trash can icon (delete) and a circle-with-slash icon (block).

Blocking a user hides their comments from everyone except themselves. They can still comment, but others in the chat won't see them.

⚠️Note:  Blocks are event-specific. If the user returns to a future event, you must re-block them.

Exporting your chat transcript:

The chat feature will deactivate once your event concludes. Following the event, you can download a transcript of the event's chat as a .txt file. The system will store this transcript for 30 days.

To export your chat's transcript:

  1. Select the chat icon from the top-right of the page.
  2. Select the overflow menu ( ⋮ ). 
  3. Select Download. 
  4. Select either the ‘Current’ session for the event you just streamed or select your event’s date for a previous stream.

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